Two Education Programs Being Launched To Help Agents Into Cyberspace Two new cyberspace education programs are being launched this spring with the intent of taking real estate professionals beyond just e-mail and Web sites - helping them design complete e-commerce packages for their businesses. Beginning from mid-February to early March, the National Association of Realtors will begin taking a limited number of pre-registrations for its E-Pro certification. Also, the Real Estate Cyberspace Society has announced an agreement with the Inner Circle Education real estate school consortium to begin offering the Real Estate CyberSpace Specialist designation program, also this spring. The E-Pro certification will cost about $299 with annual renewals. The final price of the RECS has not been established, but it will include the $149 annual membership fee to the Real Estate CyberSpace Society. Jack Peckham, founder of the Real Estate Cyberspace Society, said the RECS will be delivered live by ICE instructors nationwide. Inner Circle is comprised of 30 separate independent real estate schools in 27 states and Canada. "It's not really a competing program to E-Pro," said the Boston-based Peckham. "With RECS, you get a membership in the society. That means you get audio tapes every 60 days that interview people who are being successful on the Internet. And you get newsletters. "Members who have specific needs or questions also are able to click on our list of experts and send an e-mail off to someone who knows how to handle certain kinds of problems." Although historically the Cyberspace Society has been targeted to commercial agents, its membership is actually about 40 percent commercial, 40 percent residential and remainder comprised of bankers, appraisers and others. According to Michael Russer, the chief architect of E-Pro, the NAR certification program will have several areas of focus, including developing computer operational skills, marketing skills and "protocol." "A critical issue is how do you create a business relationship with an Internet powered consumer," said Russer. "The course recognizes that the online consumer is different from the offline consumers." Standards of behavior are different in e-commerce, he said, in that brokers and agents must understand they can be impacted by a wide range of state regulations, not just their local state regulations, and such things as security are paramount to the e-consumer's interest - which is not something traditional buyers and sellers are that concerned with. One of the more interest facets of E-Pro is that it is predominantly a Web-based program. Traditional classroom instruction will largely unnecessary - though Russer says in some cases live "mentors" will be available to help struggling students. Also different will be the E-Pro testing. When signing up for E-Pro, students must agree to be tested periodically without knowing they are being tested. Agents may receive e-mail inquiries that appear to be from real potential home buyers or sellers, and will be measured on how quickly they respond and with what information. Agents may be asked for files and the system will judge them on how the file is sent and whether the format is correct. "The only way to pass is the adopt the appropriate behavior," Russer said. "In a real sense, we're trying to change the behavior of the agents." | 
